Women join unhealthy gold harvesting in Kovai

COIMBATORE: The periphery of Ukkadam Periyakulam Lake is abuzz with activity. With the area receiving a facelift under the Smart City Scheme, there is scarcely anyone to notice a clutch of makeshift tents pockmarking the locality. 

Inside the tents are what you could call the real gold scavengers, toiling hard to harvest gold dust from the drainage sludge. One has to trek some distance from Perur Bypass road to the lake to see these people at work, without any safety gears. They keep washing off the sludge using wastewater with bare hands until some gold sediments are sieved. 

A few women said they have been doing this work for the past many years and their work is not complete until they fine-tune the collected sediments through a crude filter.

When they have enough sediments, they move on to the step, where they melt the sediments along with mercury at a high temperature to harvest ‘gold’. For a gram of gold, the workers said they would get Rs 2,300 from the jewellery manufacturers in the city. 

“More than 50 families in the locality are into this work. We are paid around Rs 500 a day by the jewellers. Our men bring the sludge from the open drainage in Chetti Veedhi, Keerakara Veedhi and Selvapuram, where there are many jewellery shops,” said a woman, who refused to reveal her identity. 
However, work safety and health condition are what these workers are least bothered about. 

Cause of illness
Experts opine the constant exposure to drainage would lead to illness. A health dept official said that the person would be exposed to methane and ethane gases if he comes in direct contact with the sewage water